Business Analyst – How to Say No, Tactfully

Between the company’s needs and the technical abilities of the IT people, the business analyst sometimes has to make choices and announce to one of the teams that, in the end, the project cannot be done… How do you handle the situation without alienating one of the two parties?

Business analyst Camille Amathe went through this experience recently. The IT people called him to inform him that they wanted solution X. However, during this time, the business side wanted to explore the scenario of solution Y…

“I was not at all comfortable with submitting solution X to the client, since I did not have any arguments to give him. So I asked the IT people to give me their selection criteria since, in addition to the functional coverage rate, there may be other criteria and this had to be shared, discussed and approved by the client ahead of time, when we do the traceability matrix.”

For Camille Amathe, everything hinged on the traceability matrix, a document which records, weights and structures the client’s needs. “The goal of this matrix is to make the decision-making process as factual and objective as possible, precisely to avoid bias and negotiation games.”

It is an “analytical” approach where the company’s needs are collected, certainly, but more importantly they are prioritized. “We assess the benefits and detriments of each need, ranking them from 1 to 10.”

Therefore, if a client insists to include a function which is costly and does not add much benefit, the business analyst has a tool in hand to bring it back to order objectively.

Understanding the reasons behind the stubbornness

What do you do if one of the parties (the client, the IT people or procurement) insists on a solution that does not fit with the criteria and needs established upstream of the project?

“That’s where soft skills come into play,” Camille Amathe responds. “The business analyst must have the emotional intelligence to understand each party’s fears and motivations. What makes a person not want this solution? Sometimes it’s political. The person knows a friend who works in a company that supplies the solution…  That said, the business analyst always has to retain the role of adviser and not make the decision in the client’s place.”

For Camille Amathe, the role of the business analyst is to protect the client’s interests (the company’s business side) while supporting the technical staff toward a “sustainable” business solution, oriented toward the end user.

Related topic: Business Analyst and Their Collaborators

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